At the end of my sorting alley at the top corner where the cows "jam up" while sorting I put a 8 ft gate that opens into the pen my calves go into. I thought I could put a couple pipes across the opening so the calves could duck under into the pen while sorting the cows down the alley.How High do you think the pipe should be to let the calves under and keep the cows out?

A point this guy makes is that often only a small movement is needed.That is so true and it seems people either get it or they don't.Often my wife --or I==will say 'lets get sorted before the help gets here....'Knowing your cattle and pardner makes things so much easier....Altho I like to be at chute when working cows, it's sure easy and quiet if I'm the one bringing them up.

I agree littlejoe, as much as we appreciate and depend upon neighbors for help working cattle we find ourselves doing a lot of things by ourselves more and more. Take yesterday for example we bangs vaccinated 150 heifers calves just the two of us and the vet, and it took two hours and was smooth as can be. I love my neighbors but they are of the older generation around here that were taught to work cattle by putting a "scare" into them rather than working with the animal.

Well we set the pipe a 39-40 inches at that was too high so lowered it 4 inches and still had a cow go under but she was a special kind of miserable so it might work fine tomorrow. Time will tell as we have about 300 to run by it.

Big Muddy rancher wrote:Well we set the pipe a 39-40 inches at that was too high so lowered it 4 inches and still had a cow go under but she was a special kind of miserable so it might work fine tomorrow. Time will tell as we have about 300 to run by it.

That's good to know because I have been considering doing the same thing. We are getting more than a few calves over the 700# mark so setting the pipe at the right elevation could be tricky but my thoughts are that as long as I had it close to the right height if a guy were careful to move them through playing on the different handling traits calves exhibit compared to cows I might get away with it. Still trying to screw up the courage to try it lol. Keep us posted on how it works.